Laboratory
by Nyphera
Summary: Brynn sits in his laboratory like the schlup he is. Kai goes on a trip to the labyrinth with Evie and Lann. Rated for violence and swearing.
1. Nothing Happens This Chapter

_**A/N: **Uhm, ahaha... Hello. This is my first fanfiction story. Well, fictional story at all. So it's quite terrible.__ Posting this is actually taking a lot of courage, to be honest. Reviews would be greatly appreciated!_

_Also... slow start. This might actually be a slow story overall, despite how there's not much to read. I forgot about how descriptions are actually kind of important in stories. Dialogue is just a lot easier to write. There really are a lot of different styles of writing, isn't there..._

* * *

Brynn sat in his chair, comfortably reading through an ancient spell book Evie had obtained from an old creature in Hoarfrost Depths. The book carried a light scent of mint, masked by the deep, buttery odor of the laboratory. Notes of information hidden in the text were strewn about his desk. The room was relatively dark, as it was late in the afternoon. The main light sources came from the flames of nearby candles placed casually around the room. After about an hour or so of reading, Brynn looked up and saw Nyle come into the room with a cup of warm tea.

"Oh," Brynn said as he placed the book down and took the steaming cup from Nyle. "… Thank you, Nyle. Is there something you need?"

"No," he replied, "but it seems Kai and his teammates have returned."

Brynn sighed, leaning back into his chair, and took a sip of his tea. He relished in the warm, bitter, and familiar taste. "I see. He'll probably visit later today, then." Kai always visited once a day, if only to read some of the books from Brynn's personal library.

Nyle countered Brynn's comment with, "Unlikely." He walked over and leaned against the wall opposite Brynn. "It seems Marrec requested that Kai explore Resenlian's Labyrinth with Lann and Evie once they return from their previous mission."

"Resenlian's Labyrinth?" Brynn repeated, looking up with surprise evident in his voice. "The deep maze located in the cave on Resenlian's island?" He huffed and continued, "Perhaps that man will finally meet his match."

"Perhaps," Nyle replied with a tinge of amusement.

"In any case, I will ask Evie to obtain the Shadow Fragments dropped from the doppelgangers. It should help further my research on the labyrinth."

After a brief pause, Nyle said, "They need to take caution." His eyes narrowed. "The creatures are not to be taken lightly."

"Is this why you came here, Nyle?" Brynn asked, but the hooded man had disappeared by the time he finished his sentence.

* * *

"Oh! Hey Evie, you remember to buy that kit thing you needed?" Evie looked up at Lann—surprise and guilt written on her face—and he sighed. "Just go, we'll wait for you."

"Sorry! I'll be right back!" Evie yelled, already running towards the Magic Laboratory.

Lann sat back against the side of the boat, placing his arms behind his head. He took a deep, calming breath, taking in the smell of the salty ocean. "Gotta love the dusk sky, eh?" Lann asked, looking over at Kai.

The target of the question sat at the dock near the boat, his eyes closed, still as a statue. He was as quiet as a statue too, for that matter.

Lann rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Always the silent treatment with you." After a moment, Lann suddenly sat up, catching the statue-man's attention. He then looked directly into the archer's eyes and exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, "Kai, baby, you know I didn't mean to hurt you!" He pouted his lips, eyes wide and filled with shame. "It was just a one-time thing, I swear! I'll never do it again, baby. Please forgive me!" Lann continued, his hands locked together as if he were sincerely begging for forgiveness.

Kai chuckled at Lann's suspiciously convincing act, and looked over and noticed Evie had returned from her brief trip. He stood up slowly with a quiet greeting, and they both got onto the boat to join Lann.

"Hey guys! Sorry it took so long. Brynn was just asking if we could try and get some fragments from the dungeon to help with some of his research," Evie explained.

Lann dramatically gasped. "Why didn't he ask me?" he remarked. "I'm so hurt."

"Oh stop it. You know he can't leave the laboratory!" Evie responded with a peeved look on her face. However, this had caught Kai's attention, and he glanced at her with a questioning expression. "Wait, you didn't know that?" she asked Kai, surprised. He shook his head.

"No. Is there a reason for this?" Kai asked.

"Well, if he hasn't told you, then it's not like we can. It's his business anyways; ask him yourself when we return," said Lann matter-of-factly.

"Lann, it's not like we know the reason either. We've never even asked, actually," Evie had said quietly as Kai looked at Colhen, his eyes passing by the wave of mercenaries and in the general direction of Brynn's shack.

"We should leave now," recommended Kai, "before it gets too dark."

"Understood, Cap'n!" Evie replied cheerily.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ I will never write again. Well, not today at least. I need time to recover from this TERRIBLE FICTION. I also have too many Vindi ships to cry over. Actually, just ships in general. Riding along the surface of the ocean, what do they think they are? BOATS? Sigh. The ignorance of our nation saddens me._

_It's also 7:10 AM on a cold and brisk Monday morning, and I haven't slept a wink. Someone make me some fuckin' tea._


	2. Not Here Either

**_A/N: _**_I have never shipped Evie/Lann. At least, not before this.__ Also nothing really happens this chapter, either. It's just me wondering how the god damn labyrinth works. Lo siento._

* * *

As they entered the deep labyrinth, Lann sighed with a breath of awe, excitement plastered on his face. The entire room was empty, dark, and very, very wide. There were skull-shaped exits on opposite sides of the room; the one to their left had green glowing eyes, and the one to their right held red glowing eyes in contrast with torches lit on each side. The room ominously smelled of sulfur and blood, Kai noticed.

"It's huge! And so fucking cool!" Lann's voice echoed loudly throughout the room as the three mercenaries walked towards the middle of the room. He paused his steps for a moment and snorted, "That's what she said."

"Lann, be serious here!" Evie chided. "This place is supposed to be super dangerous and crawling with scary creatures. We can't be making jokes and getting ourselves killed in the process!"

"Come on, Evie. The point is to have fun while we still can," Lann explained. "Maybe you'll even find your one true love here," Lann winked at the mage, wearing a smirk on his face.

Evie flushed and sputtered, "I swear to the goddess, Lann." She glared at him and said, "If the monsters don't kill you by the end of this, I will!" Kai was already walking towards the red exit of the room when Evie suddenly stopped him. "Wait! Wh—why don't we go the other way, Kai? I don't really have a good feeling about this," she mumbled.

He replied, "It is only a color. We can handle it," and the conversation was dropped as he entered the next room, followed by his quiet teammates.

The first couple rooms contained waves of fomors that appeared out of nowhere. Most of them resembled the dark gnolls the mercenaries had fought when they were just recruits. The creatures were easily defeated, the Lann complimenting himself on his skill and bravery at the end. They continued on to the next red area.

* * *

The bow user immediately stuck out his arm, stopping the other two mercenaries behind him. "Doppelgangers," Kai whispered with caution.

They looked straight ahead and could see four dark humans, resembling Fiona, Lann, Evie, and Karok. They appeared to be waiting to attack. There was an ominous, grim, and dark aura covering each of them. For a few minutes, everyone stood still. The only sound was the quiet breathing of the three.

Then suddenly Lann shouted, "I've got this!" and charged straight in.

"Lann, you fucking dumbass!" Evie screamed and quickly covered her mouth as Kai rolled his eyes and readied his bow.

Crouched down, Kai watched as Lann distracted his and Karok's doppelgangers. He aimed his bow and shot at the Fiona doppelganger. It quickly brought up its shield and the arrows bounced straight off. It seemed to listen, for a pause, and heard nothing. The Fiona then charged straight at Kai and found itself kicked in the face with its head bashed into the floor, Evie wincing at the gruesome sight as she fought off her own doppelganger. She finished it off with an explosive firebolt, charring the already-black creature. At this point, Lann had downed his doppelganger, and was just about finishing off the Karok.

The fight ended swiftly. After the mercenaries had calmed down from the blood rush, Lann started with a whisper, "Th—that was…"

"Simple," Kai finished, picking up a peculiar, shining fragment off of Fiona's doppelganger. The strong stench of blood marked the dark object.

"They went down in seconds!" the boy exclaimed in astonishment. However, Evie didn't look very surprised. Rather, she seemed to be deeply stuck in her thoughts, and the archer noticed.

"Evie," Kai looked at her with concern, "are you alright?"

This seemed to snap her out of her reverie, and she replied with a simple, "I'm fine." Evie looked down and scratched her head as Kai's eyebrows knotted together. "It's just—" Evie paused, "I've heard so much about this area. How difficult it is, how so many people haven't returned." She looked up at her teammates and said, "Doesn't that mean it's going to get a lot harder?"

Kai relaxed his face and replied, "Yes. But we can handle it. That is why we went on the mission."

"But we're risking our lives here, Kai!" she retorted.

Lann chipped in with, "We risk our lives every day, Evie. And we have each other's back, you know. Plus with the addition of feathers and health potions, we'll definitely be fine."

Lann smiled reassuringly at Evie, and nothing else was said as they explored the next few areas.

* * *

Some of the rooms, however, seemed to require more precise skill. One had them spear down numerous fomors standing on pillars, but this proved to be very easy as Kai had shot the rest with his bow when they ran out of spears. The other room required that they kick golden globes at the Gnoll Chieftain, and this was assisted by inappropriate comments from Lann to the annoyance of Evie. "Yeah you like my golden balls, don't you, Chieftain?"

When they completed their seventh task—fighting the Giant Spider from the Ruins of Sanctity—Lann stopped his team and questioned them about the direction they were going.

"If we've been going right every time, shouldn't we somehow keep passing the room we started in?" he asked in confusion.

"Amazing observation skills, Lann," Evie muttered sarcastically a few feet away.

Lann's jaw dropped an inch and he placed his hands on his chest, looking offended. "You don't really mean that?!" Lann put his head into his arms, mimicking the sound of a crying child. "Someday you'll learn to love me, baby!" his sob muffled.

Kai ignored his teammates' antics and continued walking. Over his shoulder, he explained the phenomenon. "It is likely due to Resenlian's magic. These rooms are linked together haphazardly, forcing adventurers to go on separate paths." Kai stopped next to the right exit, gazing around slowly, his eyebrows furrowing. "This likely means that if two parties were to enter separately, it would be hard for them to find their way back to each other. It would also be relatively difficult to find their way back."

Evie gasped. "Then we really need to stick together!" The mage hurried over to Kai, dragging Lann along by his ear. The boy complained loudly, but Evie and Kai ignored him and entered the next room.

* * *

Evie was right when she believed it'd get harder. A few hours later and 25 floors in, they met their seventh group of doppelgangers. They were much more skilled than the last number of fights, with upgraded armor and weapons. Somehow, the Karok doppelganger had revived itself, causing them even more trouble. Twenty health potions in and a phoenix feather used, the team finally defeated the doppels. Kai asked about the number of feathers they had left, and Evie said they should have one left. "Either way, I should still have enough magic to revive one of you should either of you die, so it'll be fine, I think," Evie said, with a tint of doubt in her voice.

When she had commented on the familiar armor and weapons the doppelgangers held, Kai had replied, "They are copies of your memories. They seem to be based on the time from when you two first entered Colhen to the present."

"Wait… If I remember correctly, soon after this, we met you and Vella!" Lann responded with worry. "I mean, I love Vella and all, but I don't want to fight her! Erm, I mean creepy black her! Wait no, that's racist," Lann laughed nervously. "Anyways, even though I was going easy on her every time, I've never won a duel between us. Plus, Kai, _you_ can do thingswith that bow that I don't even—"

"Actually, Lann," Evie interrupted after thinking for a bit, "we met Kai before this. I think I was still wearing my scarlet witch clothes at the time."

"Evie is right," Kai said.

Lann furrowed his brows. "But… Then why is it just them? Are they only sticking with the four or something?"

Kai and Evie looked at him, as she shrugged her shoulders and he shook his head. "We do not know," said Kai as he turned to the next room, "but it does not matter. Let's continue."

* * *

_**A/N: **__Haven't really been able to look over this chapter ;; There might be mistakes in continuity, because I switched the rooms around (the third room's supposed to be doppels, but I thought it was the fifth). I wanna get a friend to look over my writing but it's embarrassing ahaha. Plus I don't want to bother anyone too much, whoops._

_I have an ortho appointment in about an hour, ugh. But the Starbomb album came out today, so yay for that! It's the only album I'd ever actually pay for, if I had money. There was also two other things releasing today... Can't remember what either of them are. Oh well. I'll stop talking about unrelated things now. No one cares. Except me! Because I'm great. 3 great. 5 amazing._

_I was also listening to Blame It On The Girls by Mika the whole time I was writing this... Hopefully I didn't subconsciously write down the lyrics somewhere, haha. Running on five hours of sleep; too little to feel completely awake, and too much to feel dead inside._


	3. Whispers of Short and Sweet Nothings

_**A/N:**__ Oh my god I haven't written anything for like three weeks, haha. So here's just a really quick drabble. Practicing the whole descriptive thing and all._

* * *

It was now far in the evening, the moonlit sky only emphasizing how late Kai and his companions were. Brynn had finally finished the spell book he'd started early in the morning, and it wasn't like him to worry about the mercenaries, but it _was_ getting rather late. Most of the time, they would be back in time for supper. Of course, that might only have been due to Fiona's constant motherly nagging, making sure her friends eat right and healthy.

Brynn thought perhaps another cup of tea would help calm his frazzled nerves. With his current work finished, Brynn had sensed the need for a long needed break. The male mage paused for a second, then slowly stood up from his chair and walked to the next room. Also known as the kitchen, the room was equipped with many oak wood cabinets, cooking utensils, and an old iron stove with a kettle filled with hot water on top. The walls were plain, if only decorated by a few small picture frames of the townsfolk, given to him as a gift.

He took an empty silver teapot from the cabinet to his left, and added in a spoon of tea leaves, and water from the kettle. Using his magic to slightly speed up the brewing process, Brynn grabbed a cup from the cabinet above the stove and poured himself some tea, the mildly bitter scent drifting to his nose.

Normally, Brynn would rely only on his magic for simple things like making tea. He was often far too busy with reading and learning more about summoning to interrupt his work and get up. However, when he got too stressed, Brynn enjoyed the routine movements. It felt familiar to him, reminding him of the better parts of his past. Of course, having to wait for his tea to brew did nothing for him, so he skipped that part of the process.

Taking the cup of tea, Brynn walked back to the main room and towards the closed window, looking at the few people strolling around in the cold night. The stars were out, and any lights on outside were dim. He sipped his drink. The town was wintry and serene. Brynn closed his eyes for a moment, and listened to the familiar sounds that drifted around him. He felt the warmth of his candles, the flames flickering every so often. He heard the quiet thud of doors outside, people chattering happily as they entered and left. His breathing was soft. Calm.

* * *

_**A/N: **__To be honest, writing that last part felt kinda asdfghjkl just because of the implications that may or may not be there. He's stuck in his laboratory, after all. There must have been people he was at least close acquaintances with. Possibly friends he unconsciously looked forward to seeing. And they left. To search for something better in life, probably. Colhen is certainly warm and cozy, but it's not very exciting. Then again, he might not care at all, preferring to just stick to his magic... _

_Ahaha, I'm just babbling now, sorry. In any case, not sure if I'll be able to continue this. Will certainly try. I don't have too difficult of classes this quarter for college, so will probably have the time. Just maybe not the willpower._


	4. Is This Something? OH YES IT IS

_**A/N:**__ Wrote this while the site was rejecting to post chapter three D: Also, Sherlock. Doctor Who. Supernatural. Oh m y gdo. The last episode of the third season for Sherlock is this Sunday. Man it started out strong and it JUST. KEPT. GOING. _

_Also open beta started for Aura Kingdom. I really love the character models, and the glide system (though it feels a bit clunky at points, as does all anime MMOs). It's great._

_EDIT: Thank you very much, Crowlet, for the review on this chapter! I've edited a paragraph or two slightly to help with the flow. I forgot to incorporate a few things you talked about, but hopefully it's better this time around :x_

* * *

After about another half hour, Kai, Lann, and Evie reached the 32nd floor of the labyrinth; Lann had been counting, though he might've missed a room or two as he'd been left cold and dead on the floor after a joke gone too far. His quips about Kai's mother were just a bit too much.

Kai turned towards his comrades as they both nodded and he moved forward. A large, armored form appeared, giant horns protruding from its head. It held a mace for a weapon, and its teeth were long and sharp; the goddess only knew what its breath smelled like. Recognizing the figure, Lann's breath hitched.

"It's… Klaus," Lann whispered, his breath shaking slightly and his hands unconsciously tightening on the handles of his swords. "Did we ever—?"

"No," Kai said. "We had to evacuate immediately after—"

"After running out of feathers," Evie whispered. They looked at Klaus cautiously, feeling a sudden pang of fear. The boss had yet to notice them, standing still and lifeless.

"We should've stopped this right when we ran out," Lann said as he looked at the floor.

"It is too late now," Kai interjected, readying his bow. "We must be careful. Evie, ready your spells. Lann,—"

"Keep looking fabulous, I know," he cracked under his breath with a weak laugh.

Evie glanced at Lann with furrowed eyebrows. She harshly whispered, "Lann, what are you doing?! This is—"

"I know!" Lann shouted loudly with frustration, his voice echoing through the room. His eyes widened as he looked up at Klaus, already charging directly at the group with strong intent to kill. "Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Kai dodged out of the way as Evie blasted the monster with ice, freezing it for just long enough. Kai shot at its weaker spots as Lann dashed in, swords already slicing and piercing through its flesh. Klaus broke out of the ice immediately, leaping back towards Kai who moved to the middle of the room. The bow wielder had sensed this already, and dodged the attack, and those following it.

In order to distract Klaus from bombarding Kai with its mace, Lann yelled to its right, "Hey buddy, you're going for the wrong piece o' meat!" However, instead of charging towards Lann, Klaus brought up its mace high above him.

"Shit, get ready to move, guys!" Lann yelled. Large, dark spheres were sent out through the mace in multiple directions, just barely missing Evie. The second the spheres stopped appearing, Lann charged straight towards the boss. He attacked Klaus with strong determination to bring it down, constantly dashing and striking seven times in a row. The monster fell, mace hitting the ground with a dull thud. "I… I did it!" Lann smiled ecstatically. "Holy fucking shit, I did it!" He howled in the sudden quiet of the room. Lann stopped, looked at his friends and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Still locked out," Kai replied simply as he looked at Klaus, scanning the body closely. He felt there was something terribly wrong. What he thought was proven true, as Klaus opened his eyes and lunged straight towards him.

Evie noticed immediately and summoned her golem, ordering it to attack. Kai tried to grapple away, but he was a second too late as Klaus grabbed the chain, pulling the archer roughly into its fist. The painful sounds of Kai's bones crushing echoed in the wide room. Evie had begun casting her ice spear when the monster roared and Kai was flung across the room, a cry of pain stopped only by the blood in his throat. Kai could barely see his teammates through his half-lidded eyes, but they widened when he noticed what Klaus was about to do to his friend.

Lann shouted in rage as he charged straight in, but not a single attack connected as he found himself crushed under the monster's foot, his own bones cracking with his blood-curdling scream. He laid there, no longer a trace of life in his eyes, as Klaus charged at the wandering golem.

Evie ran to Lann, attempting to revive him before her golem was killed. She was successful as Lann coughed and hacked, but quickly got up with a quiet word of thanks. Evie charged up her ice spear again, firing large, powerful ice crystals at Klaus, effectively freezing him a second before he could get to Kai.

Lann took this chance to injure the boss as much as possible, before it was killed by Evie's firestorm and strikes of lightning. The boss fell for the second time, as Evie saw the red gates open and the red and green eyes of the skulls glow dimly.

A small tug on her arm by Lann brought her attention back to Kai, and she gasped.

* * *

A metal piece of Kai's armor protruded from his abdomen. Crimson soaked the worn metal, alongside the rest of his armor. Kai faded in and out of consciousness, just barely registering the fact that he might finally die permanently. He wore a small, bitter smile as blood seeped slowly from his mouth.

Of course, fate was always as ever so cruel, as his teammates came into his vision, worry and shock written across their face. He knew he couldn't leave them there. So he held on as best he could, lying there nearly dead.

Evie, knowing fully well she couldn't heal Kai's wound, tried to at least minimize his pain, and the loss of blood, with her magic. They wouldn't dare remove the metal until they were sure they could close up the wound, so Lann suggested that they get to Brynn. Kai was not yet dead, and neither Evie nor Lann felt right about bringing him to Colhen to kill him then revive him with a feather, so Lann felt Brynn would best know how to heal his friend back up. Lann carefully picked Kai up, as the team headed back to town.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ I'm not too hot on that last part... I'm really tired. Might revise it completely... later. College classes and all, haha. Hah..._


	5. Not as Much Happens This Time

_**A/N: **__Ehehe... I forgot I'd already had this chapter partially written out. I was planning on editing it but completely forgot. So there's likely a number of word redundancies and weird, broken statements I'm too lazy to fix. Tbh I should be asleep right now. Or doing my homework that was due today. Instead of homework, I've been playing Aura Kingdom and drawing requests for people on the forums. It's fun, but damn a big distraction._

* * *

"You fucker, open up already!" Brynn jerked abruptly from his chair, a slight imprint of his sleeve on his forehead. He'd fallen asleep at his desk as he was reading over his notes. It seemed he'd only slept for an hour, since it was still quite dark outside. The mage got up from his seat, trying to rub the sleep away from his eyes as he walked towards the door, slightly irritated.

Before he reached the handle, Lann had already busted in, holding a severely injured Kai. Brynn's eyes widened. Evie followed behind them with her hands hovering, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. She glanced at Brynn, with extreme worry in her eyes. "We need your help," she said.

Brynn looked to Lann for an explanation, but did not bother as the boy seemed to be looking for a bed to place Kai. Brynn pointed towards the room in the back. "Place him on one of the beds in there, then get me a towel and a bucket of water." Lann swiftly walked into the room and laid Kai on the nearest bed. Evie sat down next to him, still focusing her magic on the giant gash.

"Evie," Brynn said, walking into the room as Lann left. "I need you to cast your healing magic as I remove the metal from his abdomen. The second it's out, I will try to stop the internal bleeding, and I will need you to keep him awake and continue clearing the blood out from his airways."

"Understood," she said, looking at Kai—just barely conscious, his eyes opened slightly.

"Kai," Brynn said, placing his hand on the man's forehead. He turned his eyes to Brynn. "You must stay with us. I promise it will be over soon." Brynn received a slight nod from Kai, mouthing the words, _I will—_

Brynn began pulling the metal out from Kai's flesh as his eyes widened, trying to shout through the pain. "Focus on repairing the bones and clearing out the blood, Evie!" Brynn shouted.

"I am!" Evie replied.

"I will heal the punctured organs," Brynn said as the metal was completely taken out and left on the ground, the archer shaking slightly. "Kai," Brynn looked at the man with a frown, "you _have_ to stay with us."

* * *

The man certainly held on. An hour and a half later, the bed was soaked with blood, alongside the towel and water Lann had brought back. When the intense scene was done with, Lann moved Kai into another, cleaner bed to sleep as Brynn went to change the sheets. Evie was taking a nap with her head leaning on a bedpost, tired out after having to cast her magic for such a long period of time. After making sure Kai was safe, Lann headed back to the inn to notify the other mercenaries once Brynn had returned.

Kai laid there sleeping, candlelight revealing the tight bandages wrapped around his torso. The mages couldn't yet fully heal the outer wounds, as they'd spent too much on curing his more critical injuries.

Brynn looked over him with concern, entirely exhausted but wanting to make sure nothing goes wrong when he wakes up.

"Has something happened?" a low voice asked from behind him.

Brynn jumped slightly, and turned to look at the doorway. Nyle stood there with an unreadable expression on his face, enhanced more so by the shade of his hood.

"Kai is injured," Brynn replied with a sigh.

Nyle looked past Brynn at the bandages, his eyes narrowing. "I see," he said.

Brynn turned back to Kai, grabbing a clean towel to wipe off the sweat from his forehead. "Once he's received enough rest, and my magic recovers, I will continue healing the rest of his wounds."

There was a momentary pause. "You seem to care quite a bit, Brynn," Nyle said, watching him from the door.

Brynn paused, unsure of what to say. When he'd turned to the doorway and saw no one there, Brynn scoffed, muttering a profanity or two under his breath. He turned back to Kai, watching his chest move with his soft, leveled breathing.

* * *

_**A/N: **__Brynn's a bit weird in this; I'm starting to worry if he's getting too out of character. Hm. I've also been reading a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction... He oddly reminds me of Snape *sweats*. Plus that last sentence... kinda weird. _

_Aaand I also started noticing just how great some of the writers are on this site. Like wow. I need to brush up my vocabulary and descriptive skills. God _damn_._

_"We need your help," she said. "He's gonna die," she said, the features on her face not indicating she was worried at all. Rather, it was quite the opposite. A grin spread across her face as she watched him curl into himself, shaking violently and whimpering from the pain being caused to him. _

_... What if Evie was evil?_


	6. Things Are Starting to Happen I Think

_**A/N:**__ Suddenly there's an actual, clearer point-of-view? Oh no, the world must be ending! Anyways, it's been a while since I've written anything, and I just recently typed up a small little Kai/Brynn drabble that I will either add to the end of this story, or never show anyone. Ever. So, yeah. Inspired me to write another chapter. I feel like this took a completely different turn, so I'm a bit hesitant on posting this. But I'd rather not re-write this, no matter how short it is, haha._

* * *

Lying down and reading a book Brynn had left on the nightstand, Kai was quite comfortable. Well, as comfortable as a person could be in his situation—a strong and throbbing ache clearly apparent throughout his upper body. When his mind wandered back to the battle, he sneered. His own carelessness almost left him a stray corpse, trapped forever in that terrible excuse for a dungeon. Not to mention, he put his own teammates in jeopardy. He dropped the book on his lap in favor of rubbing his face with his hands, a deep sigh escaping his lips. Kai knows none of them would have expected this would happen, but he couldn't just drop it—if he'd just been a second faster, maybe they would have all escaped unscathed. Sure, he took the brunt of the fight, but he knew by the way Lann held himself, with regrets of his own, that they did not escape without scars of their own.

The sound of knocking interrupting his thoughts, Kai placed the book down next to him and turned towards the opening door. Brynn walked in, holding a tray with two cups of herbal tea. He placed the tray on the nightstand near Kai's head and handed him a cup.

"Thank you."

Brynn said nothing; he just stood, staring at the man and blinking slowly as he drank out of his own cup of tea. Kai's eyes narrowed.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

A moment passed where neither man made a sound, until Brynn finally replied, "Yes, actually." Kai's head tilted as his eyebrows furrowed with confusion. The mage sighed. "I'm simply curious why you choose to continue resting here. Surely the inn would be much more—"

"No," Kai said quickly. Brynn's eyebrow twitched at the sudden interruption as he put his cup of tea back on the tray.

"Well then, at least allow me to fully heal your wound," he said. "Then you can be out of my hair in just a few minutes, no more but another faint scar to mar your already battle-ridden body."

Kai looked down at his hands, barely able to recognize his own reflection in the burnt orange-colored tea. "No," he said, looking back up to Brynn. Kai knew he wasn't ready to get back out there again. Not in fear of getting hurt, but rather the battles themselves he could not seem to stand thinking about at the moment.

The strong need for quiet and rest drowned him. It's been far too long since he could take a complete break from the violence. The previous times he'd visited the lab, his mind was always filled with stress, thinking about previous and upcoming quests he had to embark on. He truly appreciated the tranquility Brynn's laboratory provided, and he only hoped Brynn would allow him this once again, just for the time being.

"Kai," Brynn cleared his throat before continuing, "Do you have a problem with something? I'm sure if you explain things, I will be fine with letting you stay as you recover."

Kai was quiet for a few moments, but then started explaining. "I need a break. From everything. I would like to rest, at least for a short while. And," Kai paused, looking straight into Brynn's eyes, "I rather prefer your company over others."

Brynn sputtered, but he knew he would never admit it. He didn't know how to reply to something like that, something that seemed so uncharacteristic of the quiet man in front of him, so he swallowed and turned around to leave. As a result, he did not see the grin gracing Kai's features as he looked down at his tea, thinking about what he'd just said himself.

* * *

_**A/N: **__Welp. Kinda odd. Also quite short. Oh well, time to go and not study for my ASL 2 midterms! Aura Kingdom has proven to be a damn well great game._

_Listened to Hannah by Freelance Whales while writing this. It's pretty calming and sweet._


End file.
